Families of 480 missing Maine service members will have the opportunity Saturday to meet with specialists from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Eleven Maine service members are still missing from the Vietnam War, 45 are missing from the Korean War and 424 are missing from World War II, the agency reported.

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Twenty-one service members from Maine who had been missing have been accounted for and returned to their families.

The agency is holding an all-day event at the DoubleTree in South Portland on Maine Mall Road for families who live within a 350-mile radius of Portland.

Families will be able to learn about the work being done to bring loved ones home.

Part of that work includes getting DNA samples from family members to make a match when remains are discovered.

DNA is now collected when service members enlist, allowing the department to identify remains more quickly.

"It really brings it home what these people are going through and it makes you really, really want to do your job that much better to try to bring them their loved one home,” said Lt. Col. Holly Slaughter, the agency’s director of public affairs. “I can only imagine what it's like to be missing a loved one.”

A remembrance ceremony begins at 9 a.m. Later in the afternoon, families will able be able to meet one-on-one about their individual cases.